In nearly all the hives now in use, there is no proper ventilation, consequently the honey in such hives becomes sour, the comb mouldy, and the bees diseased. It is impossible, in our variable climate, to winter bees successfully, for any number of years, with any degree of certainty, in the great majority of the ordinary hives.
Some, who have met with heavy losses in winter, have taken the ground that the loss was caused by a poor quality of honey, stored by the bees in a wet season, or a large yield late in the fall. But this is a great mistake. Bees will not collect and store honey not suited to their use as food; they make no mistakes on this point.
I might discuss in detail all the different methods of wintering bees, and show the great losses attending each, with causes, etc., but by so doing I should consume more space than I can give in this work. I shall therefore confine my remarks to ordinary conditions of bees in winter, and the requisites to insure uniform success in wintering.
In the winter bees cluster as closely together as circumstances admit, and the severity of the cold demands. The more severe the cold, the closer they cluster together, in order the better to keep up the animal heat necessary to maintain life.
By all the old methods, the cluster of bees is divided by the sheets of comb, which is a great hindrance to successful wintering. In such cases the bees cannot cluster compactly together, but are spread out between the different sheets of comb. In the Controllable Hive, and on the plan of wintering here recommended, the bees in very cold weather cluster in the space between the wire cloth of the ventilator and the top of the frames of the brood section. They are here able to keep up the required amount of animal heat, as they can cluster compactly, without anything to separate them.
By the ordinary plan, in sudden turns of very cold weather, the bees between the outer combs are often frozen to death. "Oh!" says some one, "that's all humbug; you can't freeze a bee." Certainly you can. To satisfy yourself of this, after a very cold turn of weather, look under your box hives, if you have them, or any patent hive having a loose bottom board to admit of an examination, and see if you do not find hundreds of bees which have fallen dead from the outside combs. I have examined hundreds of stocks, and found them as here described. If you don't believe a bee will freeze, take out a dozen from a hive, in a severely cold spell of weather in mid-winter, confine them in a box, and set them out doors, letting them remain only one night. See if they are not dead beyond resuscitation, the next morning. This notion that bees will not freeze is a great mistake, and has led to some very foolish experiments in wintering them.
A swarm of bees of average size, put in proper condition for winter, will not freeze; but from this it does not follow that a bee is proof against the greatest possible degree of cold. When bees are prepared for winter, as herein directed, they will, as before stated, cluster compactly together. And as the cold increases the cluster will contract, in accordance with the increasing of the cold, and consequently no loss of bees occur.
Another great cause of loss in winter is in proper ventilation, or no ventilation at all. Every swarm of bees throws off a considerable amount of moisture from their bodies. In very cold weather, if the hive is not properly ventilated, this moisture collects on the combs at the sides and top of the hives, in the form of frost and ice. In moderate weather this frost and ice melts, and runs down into the hive, completing saturating the bees, and then, if a sudden change to extremely cold weather takes place, all are destroyed by freezing; or if they chance to survive the winter, the moisture causes the combs to mould, the honey becomes sour, and thin like water, rendering it unsuitable food for the bee, and bringing on diseases—dysentery, bee cholera, foul brood, etc., and in a short time the bees are all destroyed. Thousands of good swarms are lost every winter by improper management, and from being kept in hives not suitable for wintering. I give directions for wintering on my plan, in Controllable Hives, and I feel confident, if directions are carefully followed, that many stocks will be saved annually, which otherwise would have perished.
How to Winter Bees in Controllable Hives.
Bees are wintered in Controllable Hives on their summer stands, by my plan, without loss, by maintaining an even temperature in the brood section, and disposing of all moisture or perspiration thrown off by the bees in cold weather. I have never lost a swarm of bees in Controllable Hives in the winter. I attempt to winter none, except strong, healthy stocks. I have no mouldy combs, no sour honey. The combs are kept perfectly dry, and the hives in a healthy condition. I do not lose a teacupful of bees, on the average, from each of my hives during the winter.